Death or Growth?
Type, throughout the years has taken all manners of shape and form, it has continually evolved. Now that we've reached a digital era, most type work is done on computers, of course there are those that still do "handmade" type, but this to eventually enters the digital realm. So I suppose what I'm getting at is this; the form of type seems to be heavily influenced by the available material and media. This is pretty evident with all those fun little fonts you can pick up on the internet. Where do we see type going from here? Will it flourish and continue to grow? Or will the over abundance of available material and media, stunt its growth? Will type be able to maintain a high quality, or will it diminish?
posted by Steven @ 5:16 PM
7 Comments:
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I believe that in order for type to not only survive but improve is for us as designers to hold ourselves to a higher standard for what "good" type is. There are too many corrupt fonts and such made by random people. If technology is improving then anyone can make a font and it's our job as designer to be careful with what fonts are used.....and maybe it's our resposibility to create a way of depicting the good from the bad. Maybe it's our job to think of quality in fonts instead of quantity to pick from.
In the future we will communicate though tiny microchips implanted in our heads and will have no use for visuals. Advertisements will stream into our minds unless we pay a fee for an "ad free mind".
But seriously though, there are so many creative people with so many different backgrounds that typography is endless. So barring any major catastrophe eliminating most of the population of earth, I'd say it only gets better from here.
There is too much emphasis put on the “digital realm” in graphic design. What matters is the quality and craftsmanship of the work. If you hire a carpenter to finish your basement, do you care whether he uses an automatic nail gun or hammers all the nails by hand? I don’t. What I care about is the quality and the craftsmanship of the work. The computer is just a tool. Yeah, it’s cool that you can steal music, watch movies and get instant information but your iMac can’t solve typographic problems for you. Typography and technological innovation have always been closely related. Ever since the invention of movable type, advances in technology have major impacts on typography. But it is important to differentiate the two. Potentially technology and typography will become more attached to each other in the future. And the tools and technology designers use to solve typographic problems will change. In a hundred years, maybe nano robots will enter our body, attach themselves to our cerebral cortex and stream all typographic content to our brain. But this too will be only a delivery tool. All basic rules about typography will still apply. As far as innovation, typography will continue to grow and evolve. Certain individuals always push boundaries of knowledge. Whether its Steven Hawking in theoretical physics, Jonathan Ives in industrial design, or Wolfgang Weingart in typography; individuals like this challenge the status quo and the entirety of the human race benefits. Over abundance of material and media means nothing because innovation is based on smashing old ideas and creating better ones. Some day a qualitative typographic innovation will come along and, as designers, we’ll all say, “how is it possible no one thought of this sooner”?
I feel that type will diminish with all the bad fonts out there unless we as designers fight for quality. It is important that we know what "good tyoe" is. I personally would rather have well crafted quality fonts to choose from over a large variety. The more fonts I have on hand the more overwhelming it feels.
I agree with Nick's post, that it is up to us as designers to be educated about our use of type. It is up to us to know which fonts are the best choice for our projects. And no matter how bad the fonts may or may not get, we will (hopefully) always be able to find our perfect pick.
I believe that the fonts that are becoming more readily available are going to continue to grow and enter the mainstream. However, as designers we have to be careful and take a good look at these fonts before using them. A good typographer knows the difference between something done by linotype and something found on abstractfonts.com. We have to be careful with the ones we choose to use because you could run into a number of problems. With technology comes more headaches. The future will have plenty for us to look at and play with but our roots and knowledge must ground us in order to make sure that "improvements" and "technology" don't end up hurting design in the long run.
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